Category: Environment

Palm Oil

This is what WWF says: Palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet, and it is in about half of all packaged products sold in the supermarket. While palm oil is the most efficient source of vegetable oil, its rapid expansion threatens some of the planet’s most important and sensitive habitats. 

Blue Sky Drinking

I find a Bloody Mary a great mental stimulant. Top Tip is to start with the small bits: lemon juice, Tabasco, Lea & Perrins, pepper, best not to add celery salt as the tomato juice has plenty of that. Then chuck in the ice, vodka and tomato juice – eureka!

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Categorised as Environment

Cydalima perspectalis

Everything in the garden has been looking good. The new planter has been delivered and some English lavender planted. (Tasteful repro-Adams or cement kitsch?) In the back garden the agapanthus has put on a good show and I was metaphorically hunkered down on my horticultural haunches. Then disaster struck; cydalima perspectalis.

Monetary Union

My first impression of James Agate’s diaries was that they are a bit dry but as I get to know the recurring characters I am enjoying Ego 2 enormously. Now I want to tell you about four things that happened last weekend.

Building on Gozo

The buildings on Gozo are mostly built in warm, honey-coloured limestone. They often have elaborately carved balconies, columns and pediments although many were only built in the 1980s and 90s. Perhaps this is because there are strict planning laws and to retain Gozo’s reputation as a heritage island? Where does this limestone come from?

Grecian Bronzes

Attitudes to recycling have changed beyond recognition in my lifetime. When I was a child we never picked up used cartridge cases – they had cardboard cases and nobody bothered about the metal caps.

A Bridge Too Far

As London plans to blow about £185 million on a “garden bridge” across the Thames, Paris has found a better option.

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Categorised as Environment

An Environmental Perspective

Thirty or so years ago I would throw rubbish like empty beer cans into the sea and leave spent cartridge cases on the ground. I was not unusual but now things are different.